Irradiating the Object: M John Harrison conference, University of Warwick (UK), 21 August 2014

Irradiating the Object: M. John Harrison and SF/F Now conferences Warwick University (UK) 21-23 August 2014

Irradiating the Object: M. John Harrison (21 August 2014) is a one-day international conference, in collaboration with Gylphi, on one of Britain's leading sf and fantasy writers and critics. M. John Harrison persistently upsets distinctions between genres and between literary and popular fiction, and challenges our desire for the fantastic. His fiction – whether space opera (The Centauri Device, the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy), near-future thriller (Signs of Life), ironic post-apocalypticism (The Committed Men), weird horror (The Course of the Heart), magic realism (Climbers) or sword'n'sorcery and baroque fantasy (the Viriconium stories) – unerringly charts transformations of British social, political and physical landscapes. The agenda-setting literary editor of Michael Moorcock's New Worlds who thirty years later unearthed the New Weird, he is the most demanding of genre critics.

M. John Harrison will give a reading and participate in a Q&A session.

We invite proposals (300-500 words) for 20-minute papers or pre-constituted panels (3x20 minute papers on a related theme) on any aspect of Harrison's fiction and career. Please include detail of institutional affiliation and any AV requirements. Selected papers will appear in a collection co-edited by Mark Bould and Rhys Williams.

Irradiating the Object will be followed by SF/F Now (22-23 August), an international, interdisciplinary conference exploring the current research into the fantastic (in any medium) and the ways in which sf, fantasy, and the weird grapple with and illuminate the crucial political and social issues of the moment. Deadline for proposals 31 March 2014. For further information, see the separate CFP, or join our FB event page SF/F Now (http://on.fb.me/1ce1dfn).

A small number of travel and accommodation bursaries will be available for students attending all three days of the conference(s). For those wishing to apply, please include a brief cover note and CV with you proposal.